Portable electronic devices, particularly wireless communication devices, may incorporate multiple functions that are selectable from the user interface of the device. These devices are taking on more and more capability and ease of use of the user interface becomes increasingly more complex typically in direct proportion to the number of features or type of features available. For example a wireless communication device may function as a radiotelephone, a personal digital assistance (PDA), a gaming device, a messaging, pictorial or video console, or any combination thereof. Navigation to one or more of the functions, menus or modes of the device can take the user through iteratively more steps and key presses to get to the desired function as the number of functions available increases.
To add the functionality and maintain the portable handheld size of the device, the keys of the user interface are typically assigned multiple functions. This however is contrary to the small size and the desire to reduce the complexity of operation of the device.
Another method used to simplify the ease of use of multifunctional devices is to assign menu short cut buttons. For instance the Palm Pilot by Palm uses menu shortcut buttons on the front of the device to gain quick access to different frequently accessed menus or function of the device. However this takes up space on the housing of the device. In addition these buttons are physically non-configurable.
Accordingly, a system is needed to improve ease of use for devices with multiple functions, menus or operation modes on portable devices such as wireless communication devices. Providing an apparatus to easily and quickly navigate from mode to mode, menu to menu while allowing increased flexibility and interchangeability of certain portions of the device and still maintain the integrity and robustness of the device is needed.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Detailed Description of the Invention with the accompanying drawings described below.